PTO bearing direction

[baron wirth]

would anyone know what direction the bearings go ino the PTO section of my 3.5 k&b motor? just recieved new ones from Mecoa and it looks as ifd thgey only have seals on one side. i was concerned about them being lubricated properly.. also, do they get greased prior to installation?

 

[moparbarn]

the open sides face out. the inner will get lubed by the fuel & oil mix, & the outer will get lubed by oil or grease you lube the flex with before each run.

 

[RonShaw]

Baron,

You will see a lot of variances between bearing shielding and not. As with many topics among racers, most have their personal way of doing things. Those bearings you show above are not sealed. What you are seeing is the open and closed sides of the Phenolic, Torlon, or nylon bearing retainers. You can put those bearings in anyway you want and they will be fine as lubricant can freely flow into them. Some people use steel or rubber seals on their bearings to prevent free flow of lubrication and to help keep foreign material out of the bearings. If your bearings had seals on one side, then you would need to be careful how they were installed. If that were the case above, the shielded side of each bearing would face each other and be mounted shield first into the alum pto housing. Then the oil in the fuel will lubricate the inner pto bearing and grease/oil you use in the lower unit will lubricate the outside pto bearing. I like using shielded bearings to help maintain as much crankcase pressure as possible. My inboard engines have a shielded front crank bearing and my outboard engines have shielded front crank and pto bearings for this reason. I do not use shields on my inner crank bearings but I know some racers that do to help keep the chromoly or ceramic pieces out of their engine in case of a major bearing failure. If you ever receive pto bearings with seals on both sides, be sure to pop one side off to allow lubrication flow into the bearing.

Good luck with all of this information to digest and I am sure you may get others to chime in. If you are just beginning, absorb everything you hear and then you will at least be ready to make a "well informed" decision. Good Luck.

Merry Christmas!!!......

 

[baron wirth]

thank you on that. i gotta say man.. i learn something everytime im on this site. pretty savvy bunch of folks.. also,drilled out each of my k&b outdrives with a .0380 bit to service the tube and shaft. good call there too.